I'm back home after a trip to the USA and China. It was rich with thought-provoking discussions and meetings with delightful people but punctuated by gruelling travel with frustrating delays. I am so glad to be home. It is wild, wet, windy and wonderful here, the air soft and fresh, trees dancing, water everywhere entrancing. I am rahayu.
Rahayu is a word I encountered in Bali some years ago, and it's a concept that we need in English, but have no word for. It means living in the moment, grateful for the world as it is now. It is also a woman's name. I'm determined to introduce it to as many people as possible.
Rahayu
a raven swings and rolls
crooning craw-croo
soaring between layers
of light and flow
all we need to know
the old man says
is how to be rahayu
grateful for this moment
for silver clouds in the
relentless sky
and this black wheeling curve
of bird
(from my first poetry collection, letting light in, available as an ebook here)
